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wendy & aidan
enjoying splurging on steak and wine Life after the trek was quite wonderful and at times rather indulgent. Not only were there copious amounts of food being eaten on a daily basis but friends to mingle with, drinks to be drank, shops to shop in and sights to be seen. The week following my epic adventure into the depths of wilderness, was in the best possible way, gluttonous.
I arrived back to Kathmandu, feeling strong and fit, ready to take on the next adventure. But after stopping I realised just how tired I was, so took a good two days to allow myself to feel normal again. After having one of the most incredible showers of my life (not showering for 17days really makes you appreciate even the smallest dribbles of boiling hot water) and sending about 2kg of clothes to be washed, I felt almost human. I caught up with the three amigos again, Wendy, Pim and Aidan, and we thoroughly enjoyed playing westerners. Sipping on cocktails at Maya's Bar, indulging in red wine, steak and pizza and sizzling brownies, oh that sizzling brownie, I'll never forget it. Three amazing people, I'm so glad I was able to meet you. Here's to trekking and the reward you
give yourself afterwards 😉
After a few days enjoying the sights of Kathmandu, I caught up with the boys (Richard, Pablo and Ryan) again and enjoyed some of the best and cheapest indian food in Thamel, at Western Tandoori, ahhhh for now it was indeed good to be back in civilisation.
Holi festival or the festival of colours was upon us, 26th of March. What fantastic timing I seem to be having, to be able to be in the city for such a big festival. We had purchased our whites (essential for a colour of festivals!) and were raring to go. Or were we? Thankfully a few days before we'd been subject to target practice from the local kids so we were mentally prepared to get 'smashed'! With everyone looking and feeling very vulnerable in their whites, that without a doubt screamed 'hit me', we took off. A big group of at least 15 foreigners, again this was without a doubt the easiest guilt free target, a big group of white people dressed in, well, white. Within minutes of stepping out of the hostel we were greeted by an enthusiastic, very smiley gentlemen who only wished to bless us with the traditional
red powder, a tikka and so we were no longer holi virgins anymore, thank goodness!
We stocked up on some coloured powders in order to be armed when we saw oncoming attackers, however failed to realise that they would be armed with liquid colour, ink, and that our powder would simply be no match. So there we were walking and looking every which way, except up when SPLASH! our first big mistake, forgetting to look up! So we're walking and we've got little children coming out of narrow alley ways with water guns and water bombs filled with paint, old laughing women throwing huge buckets of water from above and old me joining in on the fun. Until about five minutes in, we didn't realise just how big a target we were... a huge walking target. Thankfully, as if with some premonition, I placed myself at the front which is normal circumstances doesn't seem wise but it turned out for the better, as everyone in the middle got absolutely soaked. After about 2km we were all pretty wet and now fairly colourful. I'd carefully dodged an ink weilding youngster who thankfully only got my right arm and before long, in the
fast pace of the battle we had arrived at Durbar Square, where the action had already begun.
"HAPPY HOLI" people would cry as they gently touched your face with a handful of powder "happy holi" you would reply and return the blessing. Excited and happy to be a part of such a lovely festival, you could not wipe the smile off my colourful face. This went on, quite peacefully and almost fun, for at least two hours before the gentle happy holi face swipe became an aggressive behind the body grope fest. Young locals were everywhere with their faces painted in every which way, gold, silver, looking like band members of KISS, were keen to dance with us, and so too were the young girls. Before long I had been ushered into a circle of about 12 young boys who merely wanted to see me dance, so I did a little dance (all gangly and watson-like) and got out of there. With loud techno music blaring from huge speakers next to a stage where two dj's waited to play their 'set', there were hundreds getting into the holi spirit, both westerners and locals, all dressed in white or old clothes and
covered in colourful paints and powders. What a sight it was for the thousands of locals and chinese lining the steps of the temples with huge cameras in their hands taking footage of it all. We escaped to Freak street away from the chaos for some much needed beer and momo's before returning for about 30minutes and calling it a day. What a wonderful experience to be a part of. Happy Holi indeed.
Ryan and I went on a motorbike adventure to secure him a Nepali licence only it wasn't that easy. The ride was quite an experience, and for once it was nice to be on the controlling end of the horn. We wove in and out of 10 'lane' traffic, past cows and around buses, past rotting rubbish rivers and mangey dogs and through crowds of locals that don't think twice about crossing a road without looking. We crossed over grid locked bridges and through police blockaides, all the while trying to find this 'licence aquiring' place using my at times unreliable gps on my phone. Thanks to my generally good sense of direction we made it, despite the few detours over badly maintained roads full of pot holes
and dust, so much dust.
To cut a very long story short Ryan couldn't purchase a licence and when I say purchase I mean purchase, he wasn't even able to bribe the boss people to sell him one. However the young local guy was more than happy to help out a confused looking foreigner with getting his permit, sure he would, and he would even convince said foriegner to pay him money for different services. You see the place we turned up to was like an open air market, for people waiting to get their licence. There were little tables selling everything from the forms, passport photos, photocopies, even a man sitting at a tressle table taking peoples blood! Yes he was indeed the man in charge of allowing locals to find out their blood type; sterilised (thankfully) pricky things, glass plates and chemical strips all without arm's reach. It was quite efficient really, for within moments Ryan had discovered his blood type, brilliant. It was far from over however, a physical needed to be conducted as well as an interview, which sadly is when he discovered it wasn't possible. This is when the guy who was helping him out said
he was going to the toilet and that he'd be back, but of course didn't return...a nice little bit of cash was made, kudos buddy! Another half an hour was wasted trying to convince these power charged men that it was ok to give someone a motorbike licence if they were on a tourist visa, although they were far too smart for that, and not in the slightest bit corrupt, which I guess is a good thing. So we walked away, Ryan all apologetic and with his half filled out forms and newly acquired blood group printed on a little car and we continued on our motorbike adventure to the zoo.
Yes the zoo. We were off to the zoo, we had to pay 500Rs to go into one of the saddest places I've ever visited. Not thinking logically I thought it was a great idea to visit a zoo in an asian country. I was wrong, and according to everyone I told the story to afterwards, should never have been so keen. Asian zoo's, for those wondering, are nothing more than places of in humane acts on helpless animals. Hippos in tanks just bigger than their beautifully large bodies, tigers
locked up in cages, monkey's wandering around looking lost in piles of their own faeces, you name it, we saw it. After seeing the elephant walk through hundreds of over entusiastic locals, with no appreciation for animals, we called it a day, or an hour. We hopped back on the bike and navigated our way back to Thamel. You wouldn't call today successful but it was definitely an adventure, and travel is always about the journey, not the destination.
After a full day enjoying the festivities of Holi, it was imperitive that I had a day to recover! So I spent a day doing some washing and thinking about my next move. Ryan and I tried to get up to the Last Resort for the Bungy Jump, but it was booked out, so a decision was made to move on to Pokhara. I enjoyed one final farewell dinner with Pablo and spent one last day checking out the magical Boudnath with Ryan, Rich and the Dutchies, a must see. Thousands of people walking clockwise around Nepal's largest stupa with butter lamps. Buddhists in their maroon and yellow robes, local women chanting and praying for hours on end; walking three steps and
then bowing down to pray for hours in a clockwise direction. Foreigners join locals in a very harmonious space in a very magical place, like I said it's a must see.
Kathmandu can be a hectic city. There's cars constantly honking horns, men hassling you to buy their products, "Smoke lady, smoke", women pleading with you to come into their shops and "just look", taxis constantly asking you if you'd like a ride, but on the whole it's a great city and in comparison to some Asian cities, quite tame I'm sure. So if you ignore the honking horns and beggers, and politely say no to the business owners and taxi drivers you'll have a wonderful time. There's the colourful scenes of Swayambhunath (the monkey temple) to enjoy, the religious tones of Boudnath to take in, Durbar Square to sneak into and of course shopping, so much shopping to be done! There are some wonderful non touristic, cheap local places to eat, like Western Tandoori. Everyone I have taken there continues to return because it's that good and that cheap. Just try and walk out of there having spent more than 150RS, I dare you! And there are some wonderful quite
places to stay in Thamel, if you really want to be amongst it. I've stayed at Alobar1000 hostel most times I've been in the city, which is great. There's always people to meet and the staff are wonderful. They have dorms for 300Rs and a pretty good breakfast for 100Rs! It's clean and a home away from home, so if dorms don't both you, stay there! I also spent a night at Tibetan Peace Guest House which has a lovely garden and is a little more expensive, 500Rs a night, but worth it if you want a bit of space!
I woke up and knew it was time to leave the city. Pokhara I was on my way. I packed up my bags and took off, with no plans, just a destination. I was to be able to meet up again with Abbey and Caitlin and my favourite Irishman Aidan! I booked into the wonderful little Century guesthouse, which became my home away from home and a place I've returned to when I've come back to Pokhara. For the next three days I enjoyed catching up with friends and chilling out. I really do enjoy just hanging around and taking in
a city or town, people watching and pondering my next move, one of my favourite past times. Aidan and I took a long and hot bike ride to Begnas lake, on mountain bikes (crazy, yes) and we discussed out food poisoning episodes after leaving each other for different excursions. The boys went on the Poon Hill trek and I decided to have a go at white water rafting...
Three amazing days were spent on the Kali Gandaki River, Nepal's holiest river, with the wonderful crew from Rapidrunner Expeditions. 12 westerners from just about everywhere, three rafts, some epic rapids and unforgettable memories.
The food was wonderful, the weather not so great (we had heavy rain on day one and two). I managed not to get sunburnt (by dressing like a mummy) and also managed to get myself very, very sick. We played cards and drank tea and ate like Kings. I was in the more 'successful' boat and we had a fabulous time going down the rapids, quite efficiently I might add. Santos, our guide, was a legend. He would yell out instructions like 'paddle back', 'left back', 'forward' (I can still hear him now) and like perfect little students we'd follow.
boys!
ryan, richard & pablo It helped that we had Uzi and Jeffery at the front, nice strong guys to cop most of the water and do most of the work. We were also allowed to jump in and body surf down some rapids, cool off and have a morning bath. It really was a wonderful trip. We played balancing games on the raft like school kids and continuously won 'splash off's' with the other raft who weren't as enthusiastic at being splashed with water every ten minutes! We passed by some funeral ceremonies, where the bodies are burnt on high stacks of wooden sticks on the banks of the holy river. Whole villages parading down with the newly deceased, sending the spirit to a higher place. Quite an intense experience, especially when you're on the river and have nowhere else to look. But an experience that has made me quite intrigued with the tradition, Varanasi I'll be there soon.
So back to the sickness business, the most popular conversation topic when travelling! I successfully jumped off a 15m cliff, like a pro, except the tiny little fact that I forgot to close my mouth and swallowed a significant amount of river water. Three hours later,
almost on the dot, I felt terribly ill and before I knew it was ridding my body of breakfast and lunch and everything else from the last few days. What an experience that was. Poor old Jeffery, the dutch guy that was lucky enough to be paired up with me in the tent (the rest of the gang were couples) had to spend the night outside, thankfully it didn't rain, because I felt terrible, both personally and for kicking him out. There were a few problems I was faced with when it started to come from both ends. A. The 'toilet' they had made was about 300m up a sand hill, not ideal when it's coming out of you like water B. I wasn't aiming all that well because well it was all so violent C. I didn't want to take any 'stoppers' because there was clearly bugs inside that needed to come out. On the upside, camping was probably the best place to be. The great outdoors. No where like it. Twinkling stars like tiny diamonds lighting up the sky, the mighty Kali Gandaki River rushing past. The perfect place to be sick because I could literally go anywhere!
And this was definitely my philosophy after the first 5 hours, when the dark of the night took over. Sometimes I'd just make it out the tent, sometimes I'd make it to the bushes. I requested that a makeshift tent be made up for me with some tarp and paddles, because I was sure that if I continued to climb over those rocks in the dark for some privacy, that some sort of damage would be done. That and the fact I didn't really want my bodily contents everywhere. After about 7 hours I had a brain wave, well either that or the overwhelming sense of thirst took over. I decided to skull litres of water. One cup at a time, it worked a treat. Skull, lie down, 5 minutes later up she came. And so this went on more or less most of the night. In the morning I woke up feeling slightly better and the vomiting had finally stopped...the only problem was now I'd have to get back on a boat. So I gave in and took 3 'stoppers' only they didn't work completely and embarrassingly enough, along the way on our final day of rafting I had
to stop the whole boat. In this case I think I'd prefer vomiting! After a long and tiring day that included 2 hours of paddling and a 5 hour bus ride (clenching is hard work ) I arrived back in Pokhara, only to find out my guest house was full. Thankfully, not many people can say no to this face, and they agreed to let me have their 'executive suite' on the rooftop for 600Rs. Ahh to be home again with a western toilet was a really nice feeling, squatting to go to the loo is hard work.
So I was back in Pokhara, and it took me a good two days to fully recover. I caught up again with Aidan, Daniel and Asaf who informed me they'd all experienced 'the shits' on their trip, so we were full of good conversation!
After three days recovering and saying goodbye to yet more wonderful friends, I made the decision to head to Bardia National Park, stay tuned.
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